Cool Down

 Guten Morgen!

Yes, I am still working on my German, and I can say more than those two words.  I've tried several different courses.  Right now I'm using Babel and I do seem to be learning, perhaps because this is the first course to actually explain where there are so many ways to say the definitive article 'the' in German.

Yesterday I was by myself at the flooring desk for most of the day.  No problems.  Business is slow right now, much slower than it was in February, which is normally the slowest time of the year.  And it's not just our store, it is all across the district.  Prices have gone up, but I believe that might only be a small, partial reason.  Another part of the problem is, I suspect, credit card debt; if you sign up for one of our cards the interest rate is a (holy mother of god) 26%.  Most importantly, I think, is the fact that during the Covid Years people spent umpteen $$$ on home improvements and have decided that now is a good time to apply the brakes.  Most only have so much disposable cash, and as I said, that credit rate is a real killer.

I had an email from FedEx this AM telling my my new computer will now be arriving on Thursday.  Excitement is building.  I went with a liquid cooling system, rather than air, which means it will look like this on the inside.

Aren't you happy I show pictures like this rather than pictures of naked people?

I saw where the once liberal Lachlan Murdoch, the heir apparent to the sinister Rupert, has changed his tune.  He gave a speech back on March 29 in which he claimed Australia's traditional values were under attack.  While he mentioned that Australia is one of the most openminded countries (?), went on to stress how censorship was ruining those values.  He continued this thread by bringing up  Facebook's attempt at limiting Wuhan conspiracy theories before moving onto Hunter Biden's laptop.  He cited a poll (?) which claimed over 50% of Americans would not stand up and fight if Russia were to invade the US.  But then, what else should we expect from the man who pays Tucker Carlson to be Putin's Puppet?  Truthfully, his complaints were not about censorship, as much as they are about his belief that mass media is needed to create and sustain authoritarian governments, authoritarian governments run by the wealthy.  I think we need to cool Lachlan down by shading him with some serious taxes, otherwise he will be just another rich guy looking for another puppet state to control.